Pasta with Sausage and Ricotta

Many of you may remember that my ultimate goal for cooking is to be able
to go to the pantry/refrigerator/freezer and prepare a meal based on
what is available to me at the moment. With that in mind, my first step
towards reaching that goal was to purchase and replace staples. In the
past, there was not much I could do with a slice of American cheese and a
Corona (long but funny story).

With this in mind, I am continuing with this week's theme of making
every leftover count. One-quarter of a box of rigatoni pasta, an
unopened container of part-skim milk ricotta cheese, bottle of prepared
spaghetti sauce, and leftover andouille sausage from last Sunday's
jambalaya yielded last night's meal of Pasta with Sausage and Ricotta.

Here's what I did:

1.Prepared rigatoni pasta according to package directions.

2. While the pasta was cooking, I sliced the andouille sausage, added 1
tablespoon oil to a skillet, placed the sausage in the skillet and
browned sausage, about two minutes on each side or until browned.
Removed from skillet.

The ricotta cheese was a nice change from the usual grated or sliced
Parmesan and feta. Atop the hot pasta and sauce, the ricotta found its
way down to the plate to combine with the sauce and make a rich and
creamy sauce. What it did not do was make a very pretty photograph.
Necessary? No. Meal served in the time it took to prepare the pasta,
under 15 minutes. That is necessary at the end of a long day.